Seventh grade science students are learning about energy transfer by making a simple task much harder than necessary!
Students are working through a unit on energy transfer by creating what's known as "Rube Goldberg Machines." The Law of Conservation of Energy states energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can transfer from one form to another.
7th grade science educator Mrs. Core explains that a Rube Goldberg is a contraption that accomplishes a simple task in an elaborate way, transferring energy with several simple machines connected together to make a complex machine.
The types of energy transfers include mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical, electromagnetic, elastic and gravitational. Students are required to include a blueprint with their project detailing the types of energy, the intended purpose of the machine and where the transfers take place on their machine. Then they have to prove the contraptions work in class.